#gotta love election season for a bit of context

[redrobinfr]

ooc:

Hey, mun here. I'm probably about to take another noticeable break from this account again due to personal anxieties regarding recent irl events. Not going to get overly specific here just cause that's not the vibe of this account, but for the most part, I'm about to cut out a majority of my social media use for my own mental health, due to the fact that algorithms primarily push bad news because that's what gets engagement.

I have zero plans to abandon this account, don't worry lol, just prioritizing myself atm

[matildaverse]

Dummies guide to... Nygmobblepot!

❓= Riddler

🐧= Penguin

Season 2

- ❓ undressed 🐧 also there was only one bed in the apartment? They shared it!!!!!

- They sang tunes and murdered people like an old married couple??

- PHONE CALLS ���️ [even Lee thought ❓ was on the phone to to his partner!!]

- Jim “what’s the nature of your relationship with 🐧 ???” ❓ stops to think then 💔 says friends [yees I realise it’s because ❓ was put on the spot but he was still sad!]

- ❓ asks 🐧 if there is anything he can do for him when he’s at GCPD? He was 💯% ready to smuggle 🐧 outta jail??? Where HE WORKS

- ❓ makes mental checklist of what 🐧 asks him to do (and I’m pretty sure he kept his word)

- ❓ is ecstatic to see 🐧 when he is released from Arkham Asylum (crazy jail)

- ❓ rejects 🐧 after he is released from Arkham because he is busy and 🐧 has changed

Season 3

- 🐧 visits ❓ in Arkham, gave him sweater and cookies and found the most difficult puzzle box he could to gift 🎁 ❓

- ❓ knows how to make origami 🐧. Is so apologetic about rejecting him

- 🐧 talking to you is keeping me sane or something...

- 🐧 eat 🐠

- 🐧 knows ❓ suit size “I had to guess” da heck you staring at him??

- ❓ is like bruh you gotta win this election honest .🐧 : love you but nah I’m not good enough now shuddup

- ❓ *love riddle*

- *❓ reprises love riddle* *🐧 answers it* omg the PEOPLE LOVE ME . ❓ looks disappointed 😔 for a split second like “yah sure the people not me hahhahahahah”

- ❓ reaches out to protect the statue of 🐧 mummy from blowing up cause he knows 🐧 cares about it

- Husband moment ™️ - ❓ cleans 🐧 shirt sleeve after 🐧 spilt wine on it and 🐧 calms down around him but is also very open about his problems and insecurities.

- ❓ stands in front of 🐧 when butch attacks. Gets choked! Cue:

[In this scene 🐧 lets go of ❓for a split second in which ❓grasps quickly on 🐧 collar. They feel safe with each other 🥰]

- ❓” I hope you know 🐧, I would do anything for you.”

- The hug that we ALL know was gonna be a kiss like c’mon!! 🐧 had to physically push ❓ out of the way to hug him!!!

- 🐧 falls in love with ❓(canonically)

- 🐧 attempts to confess. ❓ looks a upset when 🐧 goes oh I forgot as if he kinda knew what was up.

- ❓EXTREMELY apologetic about not finding Butch (the guy who betrayed 🐧)

- 🐧” I would be lost without you”

- 🐧 basically arranges a date!!! ❓is down for it but gets distracted by Isabelle (an unhealthy relationship)

- “I understand that you’re meant to wait 24hours before filing a missing persons report buT SIR I AM THE MAYOR”

- Basically every 🐧 scene when ❓ is with Isabelle

- ❓didn’t figure out 🐧 killed her when that was LITERALLY HIS OLD JOB (love made him blind???)

- ❓love is about sacrifice! You didn’t love me cos you killed my gal pal!

- 🐧 actually agrees with him. 🐧sacrifices himself for ❓(even though he tried to murder him???)

- ❓ wth am I supposed to do now??? Panics and shoots 🐧 anyways (suppressing his feelings much)

- ❓ forces hallucinations of 🐧 to keep him for a little longer... 😭😭😭 nobody he met could replace 🐧

- Hallucination!🐧 SANG A LOVE SONG!!!!!💔

- ❓tells 🦊 stuff about 🐧. He CASUALLY mentions that 🐧 is the only one that understood him!

- calling each other names (hairpulling)

- Was that the only plan you had ❓to escape jail???

^You don’t have to hold him like that????

- 🐧 freezes ❓and KEEPS HIM 🥶

Season 4

- ❓cosplays as 🐧 making fun of him in the narrows.

Skip ahead... [I forgot this part]

- Evil❓breaks 🐧outta Arkham...

- ❓helps 🐧adopted son “let’s get ice cream” . ❓is now Martin’s 2nd dad!

- ❓🐧and Lee team up.

- ❓talks to 🐧 like they’re bffs again. *rants about how he had to dress up like and old lady for Zsasz or something???*

- ❓gets tortured and he doesn’t give up 🐧??????

- 🐧saves him. ❓ “you gave up your revenge for me?”

[Context: Sophia Falcons betrayed 🐧 threatened his adopted baby boi (forcing 🐧 to relocate him). 🐧chose to save ❓over killing Sophia which for him is like HUGE (he loves revenge)]

- “I trust you” 🥰

Yada yada.. ❓mildly betrays 🐧 for some reason (later 🐧 forgets it and he hates betrayal it’s like his thing: Rage revenge)

Season 5

- 🐧 saves ❓ life after he been 🔪 🔪 (with the help of a man who TORTURED them both)

- His “I’m going to fix you❓” is soft and sincere (in the 2nd version Idk why but the two times it played it sounded different to moi)

- 🐧names his 🐶 “Edward”

- 🐧 hates whoever 💣 haven! Until he finds out it was❓

- 🐧 *so soft* “ ❓ what have you done” I swear it’s like genuine concern!!!!

-❓🐧 reunite (again) ❓ is 😡 but 🐧 kinda calms him

- ❓: you saved me whyyyy???

- 🐧: “what was I meant to do LET YOU DIE?!” [love you idiot] “...friend...”

- Promise to never stab each other in the back (only the front) as friends 🔪🔪🔪

- Basically the weedding vows of murder husbands if you ask me but hey I might be biased!

- Oh and they’re holding hands in the leaked pics what kinda friend holds hand not to mention they’re hanging together after 10 YEARS (excluding the 4 years they were frenemies + 1 year acquaintances)

I may be looking into some stuff a little bit but I’m mad and it’s midnight. Maybe I missed stuff???

Side note : gifs are not mine

TL;DR

Penguin canonically loves Ed

The domestic phone calls and convos

THE HUGS (mostly the almost kiss)

Wedding Vows

Ten years time they’re still hanging out!!

[princess-of-the-corner]

As a joke, I spent time categorizing the Akumas from Season 1 of Miraculous Ladybug of how ‘Valid’ the reason for their Akumatization was. Obvs Hawkmoth is the only one to blame but still. I only did Season 1 because I haven’t really watched more than the beginning of Season 2, and I can’t always get context from the episode synopsis. 

Simple version: 

 Very Valid: The Bubbler, The Pharaoh, Chronogirl, Evillustrator, Dark Cupid, Horrificator, The Mime, Kung Food, Vanisher, Antibug, Puppeteer, Reflekta, Guitar Villain, Stoneheart, Bad Santa(I remember him being called ‘Bother Christmas’ but the wiki says ‘Santa Claws’)

Your emotions are valid, but this is a bit much Stormy Weather, Mr. Pigeon, Darkblade, Gamer

Bruh what the fuck:  Animan, Simon Says, Copycat

You brought this on your own damn self: Lady Wifi, Rogercop, Pixelator, Princess Fragrance Volpina

Long Version: 

Stormy Weather: 

Lost a contest to be the weather forecaster. Of course she’s upset, but hey, someone has to lose. 

Your emotions are valid, but this is a bit much (this whole category is basically for those upset at losing a contest)

The Bubbler

Nino just wanted to give his friend a birthday party, but Gabriel is a Dick. 

Very Valid

The Pharaoh

Jalil was just ‘hey, this ancient artifact might be a magic spell? We live in a world of magic superheroes, so maybe it could work? How about we test it out?’, but his dad’s all ‘That’d be a waste of time and misuse of a valuable artifact’. 

How’d you feel if you have an idea that’s not only cool but potentially groundbreaking for your field of work, but your dad says ‘no that’s dumb and you’re dumb for thinking it’?

Very Valid

Lady Wifi

I still have no idea how Alya thought Chloé could be Ladybug as they’ve been seen together a lot(also you have Chloé in class with her while Ladybug is out fighting an Akuma), so that was dumb mistake #1. 

But she decided to break into Chloé’s locker and rifle through her stuff and even take pictures for ‘evidence’. Like, people blame Chloé for this, but if I found someone I barely know going through my locker and all up in my personal stuff, I’d probably insist on not only school punishment, but also drag in the cops to investigate if there’s been more stuff stolen from lockers recently, or if this girl is some stalker trying to steal my underwear or something. 

You brought this on your own damn self

Chronogirl

an important and honestly really cool family heirloom she’s had for maybe half an hour is destroyed because Alya, Nino, Marinette and Adrien don’t have enough collective brainpower to think ‘a Pocket Watch can be held in a Pocket!!’

Very Valid

Mr. Pigeon

I understand his love for pigeons, but having a large flock on call to the local park is a problem. Dude needs some help. 

Your emotions are valid, but this is a bit much

Evillustrator

While he shouldn’t have been drawing in class, his teacher was a bitch. She berates him loudly in front of the class, tells him(and everyone else) that this is why he’s failing science, insults his artwork and overall calls his passion worthless. 

He loses some Validity Points for attacking Chloé instead of the teacher. Like, yeah, Chloé teased him about a crush, but she had nothing to do with why/how he got Akumatized, so he really should’ve drawn up something to punch the teacher. However, we’re judging the reason they got Akumatized, not what they did with that power. 

Very Valid

Rogercop

Man should’ve just done his damn job. Chloé’s bracelet was missing, possibly stolen. Instead of looking into it he just gets all condescending with ‘are you sure you didn’t just miss it when you looked?’. 

Like, okay, when Chloé accuses Marinette of stealing the bracelet he can’t just arrest her without proof. That’s fair. However! An expensive bracelet has gone missing and is possibly stolen, but since no one has left it must still be in the room. He should’ve at least done a basic bag check. (also, while we now she’s innocent, Marinette is a likely suspect as she had both motive and opportunity). 

You brought this on your own damn self. 

Copycat

This guy has some minor hero-crush on Ladybug. Like, while Chat did play up his relationship with her to scare him off, he doesn’t have the right to be upset about Ladybug being in a relationship with someone else. This is on the level of having a crush on a celebrity and sending hatemail to the celebrity's partner because ‘you don’t deserve them’. 

Only things that stop him from being in the ‘you brought this on your own damn self’ category is that 1. Chat did play up the relationship(depending on the translation he either just implied it out outright lied but whatever) and 2. it’s understandable to be kinda sad about it, but not to this level. 

Bruh what the fuck

Dark Cupid

Kim got rejected by his crush on Valentine’s Day. Heartbreak isvery understandable. 

His reason is 90% valid, but he does lose points since, well, what was Chloé supposed to do? Sure, she could’ve been nicer, but she still doesn’t like him back so he would’ve been heartbroken anyway. Only way to avoid this would be for her to say yes to dating him, but ‘I’m saying yes to your advances because I don’t want you to go evil’ is kinda, uh, fucked up. 

Very Valid

Horrificator

She is scared! Leave her alone!

Some Valid Points are lost because I have to ask ‘if you’re so easily frightened why are you playing the lead in a horror movie where you knew going into it that you’d get too scared to actually act?’, but  I’m going to assume that she figured her fear wouldn’t be that bad when she knows exactly when the scare is coming and can see the ‘film crew’ in her peripheral vision, but just overestimated herself. So leave her alone!

Very Valid

Darkblade

He lost the Mayoral election and the reporters are bugging him about it. Understandable, but also, like, my dude you’re in politics. You gotta know that this’l happen.  

Your emotions are valid, but this is a bit much

The Mime

His coworker sabotaged him to take his place in the show. Hell yeah are you gonna be upset!

Very Valid

Kung Food

While it does fit with other ‘losing the contest’ categories, he lost due to sabotage. 

Very Valid

Gamer

Max lost a game tournament. Or, lost the tournament to be in the tournament. While I will call Marinette out on her reason for entering the competition, she didn’t cheat to win or anything. She and Adrien are just better at the game, and Max was upset about that. 

Your emotions are valid, but this is a bit much

Animan

Local zookeeper gets upset because... some dumbass teenager is saying ‘if I had to race a panther I totally could!’??? Like, yeah, Kim is wrong about being able to outrun a panther. But why is this something to get upset about? I’d just roll my eyes and ignore it? 

Bruh what the fuck

Vanisher

Fighting with close friends, especially fights that break the friendship, suck. 

Very Valid

Antibug

She felt betrayed by her Hero. Chloé adores Ladybug, has tried to be helpful to her(even if it doesn’t really work). When she overhears Ladybug tell Chat what she really thinks about Chloé, that she’s just a liar not worth listening to, it crushes her. 

Very Valid. 

Puppeteer

Her mom’s kind of a bitch. Like, Marinette made a bunch of dolls for Manon to play with, but her mom’s like ‘no you already have too many toys’. Who says that to a kid? Like, if the kid was begging for an expensive new toy then sure, but a free gift that’s already there? Why turn it down???

When Marinette gives Manon one of the dolls anyway, her mom accuses the kid of stealing it, then confiscates the doll and says she’ll be punished for it. As she didn’t steal it, she’s extra upset that she’s being punished for something she didn’t do. 

Very Valid

Reflekta

Not only does Juleka have an ongoing issue with being photographed, but Chloé decides to be a bit bitchy about it. 

Very Valid. 

Guitar Villain

You have Jagged Stone, an awesome rock and roll star, but his manager says ‘hey, if you want to be relevant and keep making money, be more like this teen pop star!’. Said teen pop star then proceeds to insult Jagged’s entire existence and love for music. Boy’s lucky Jagged got Akumatized instead of just marching down to the news station and kicking his ass. 

Extra awesome points for not only having a pet crocodile, but having the crocodile become a freaking Dragon!

Very Valid

Pixelatior

Creepy paparazzi stalker dude gets called out and then kicked out, yet instead of doing some self-reflection and realizing how fucked he is, he gets Akumatized instead. 

You brought this on your own damn self.

Princess Fragrance

Rose, you’re sweet and I love you but this is not your best moment. Don’t spray strong perfume in the middle of class, especially science class. And this entire plan hinged on asking Chloé to deliver the letter? I know you want to believe the best in everyone, I do too. But even as someone who loves Chloé and would have written her being nicer there, that was a dumb thing to plan on as the only route. Just put the letter in the mail.

I really want to be nice to Rose, but this was a dumb plan, and I might be a bit biased about her spraying a bunch of strong perfume in the middle of science class because if I was there I would’ve been dying. 

You brought this on your own damn self. 

Simon Says

Honestly this is the Gameshow’s fault. Gabriel wasn’t even really being a dick about it. A bit hypocritical, but not a dick. 

Like, you have a gameshow where they get a random Important Person on video camera to challenge a contestant? The hypnotist gets paired with a video call to Gabriel Agreste, and they’re like ‘hey dude, this guy’s gonna try to hypnotize you and you have to resist’. Gabriel’s just like ‘fuck no. I don’t want to do that goodbye.’, which counts as a disqualification? The people running that gameshow should’ve either planned in advance to get someone willing to be hypnotized, or they should’ve gone for calling the next on the list until someone agrees to play. 

While the hypnotist is right to be upset, that gameshow is a fucking train wreck and he should be mad at them instead of the dude who didn’t want to be hypnotized. 

Bruh what the fuck

Volpina

Girl lies for attention, tries to manipulate a boy into a relationship(which is dubious consent at best), and then gets upset when someone calls her out on it. Bitch. 

You brought this on your own damn self

Stoneheart

First time he was being taunted by his crush. Second time is because people are (understandably) worried about if he’s going to turn into a rock monster again. 

Very Valid

‘Bother Christmas’/Santa Claws/Pire Noël

Santa kindly gives a kid a ride home, because Adrien decided to hang out in the snow without even a jacket. Next thing he knows, Ladybug’s trying to kick his ass. I’d be upset too. 

Very Valid

[pass-the-bechdel]

Leverage season three full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

81.25% (thirteen of sixteen).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

32.87%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Five (episode two ‘The Reunion Job’ (41.66%), episode three ‘The Inside Job’ (41.66%), episode five ‘The Double Blind Job’ (54.54%), episode six ‘The Studio Job’ (44.44%), and episode twelve ‘The King George Job’ (44.44%)).

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

One (episode eleven ‘The Rashomon Job’ (16.66%)).

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-six. Two who appear in more than one episode, two who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in all of the episodes.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Sixty-seven. Four who appear in more than one episode, three who appear in at least half the episodes, and three who appear in all of the episodes.

Positive Content Status:

The usual standard of alright, no barriers broken (average rating of 3).

General Season Quality:

A huge improvement on the first two seasons, not without its pitfalls but by and large a much stronger and more cohesive outing. Finally starting to recognise and utilise its assets more fully.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Well, at least I’m not grumping all over everyone’s parade anymore, right? I’m still not enchanted, nor impressed by representation in any fashion, but I’m not left squinting angrily at the screen after every episode as I try to figure out what to say, so that’s a win. I mean, there’s a little bit of squinting sometimes, but it’s much closer to the normal amount that comes with any show having both highs and lows over the course of the season. 

I mean, what even was the Moreau plot? They intro’d it like it was such a big deal at the beginning of the season, and then they didn’t touch it nor even mention it for most of the season, outside of the odd visit from the mysterious nameless Italian (who never managed to ratchet up any extra tension, serving more as a reminder that the season arc was not actually arcing at all). When they finally DID deal with Moreau directly, it was a great time but wrapped up quickly in a way that completely failed to live up to his Big Bad Reputation (you REALLY gotta involve the guy’s operation more directly in earlier episodes in order to sell the idea that he’s sooo much tougher to handle than, like, any of those times they dealt with the mafia or the triads or any other ruthless organised criminal entity). Let’s not fool ourselves that the lovely finale there was actually about Moreau; he was tangentially related in order to give them an excuse to sweep in and steal an election. As a formidable season-long foe, Moreau was a bust.

And as for the ladies? The good news is, Parker got several opportunities to really dig into the nitty-gritty of her formative experiences, and reflect on them from her current position in life, and that’s a wonderful thing for someone who felt a bit more like a gimmick than a person in season one. Sophie, on the other hand, I am feeling frustrated with due to the fact that her ~mysterious past~ has been kept so mysterious at this point it just feels like she doesn’t have one, and she still hasn’t really had much in the way of personal storylines and that makes it hard to connect with her as a person. Not impossible, but...I feel like we’ve hardly learned a thing about her or fleshed her out as a character since the basic traits we ticked off in the earliest episodes. Grifter, has a thing for Nate, bit of a mother hen to the rest of the team. Gimme more to work with, show. This is nothing.

I find that the most consistently quality characters on the show are Hardison and Eliot - Parker has risen to join them on the quality end, but she certainly didn’t start out as strong as they did - and while that’s certainly not a problem, it’s slightly awkward from the POV of this blog to find myself ranting over the lead character, frowning over the ladies, and praising the remaining (male) cast members instead. I’ve written before in posts for other shows, about how important quality male characters are to female representation in terms of the context the women find themselves in, and so while it is kind of weird to me that Hardison and Eliot stand out as not only the show’s strongest characters but also its best efforts at positive representation, I would not want to undervalue that fact. To use Eliot’s Moreau-reveal as an example, a big part of what makes these guys good news is that they do their own emotional labour and don’t draw it out or inflict the aftershocks onto others; Eliot has not been lashing out unduly as he grappled with his secret, he hasn’t jeopardised the team through it, and then once it’s out he doesn’t moan on about it or present his conflicted feelings for the others to deal with, nor does he internalise them and cause trouble through not dealing with his own shit. Eliot knows who he is, what he was, what he’s capable of, and he’s capable of making the clear-cut choices necessary to govern his own behaviour moving forward - kinda essential for someone in his line of work, so I’m doubly glad they acknowledged that instead of taking the usual tv-tact of making this an opportunity for ~manly angst. Men being emotionally healthy is a rare thing to see depicted, since almost every creator tends to perpetuate the notion of men as emotionally closed-off narcissists in need of the nurturing love of a woman to help them manage their ~exquisite pain as they go about their broody lives (the woman does not help them become emotionally healthy, mind, she just helps dull the pain of manly existence. War is Hell). The simple fact that Hardison and Eliot are who they are consistently and deal with their own crap instead of making it everyone else’s problem (a la Nate) is therefore a victory, dodging toxic-masculine traps and keeping their options open for relationships with women which are based on something other than some pedestal-bound emotional salvation (poor Sophie). Such a simple thing, but so rarely seen. I hope to see more of this in the coming seasons, as well as ACTUAL IMPROVEMENT in other arenas beyond ‘we figured out how to write teamwork’. Fingers crossed.

[andseperand]

thoughts

ive been sitting on this post for the better part of a year. i tried to read through it and make edits, but im going to have to post this as is. maybe ill be able to edit it someday. anyway, this is completely composed of spoilers.

tl;dr: i mostly wrote bitterness about “kung food,” “origins part 1,″ and “reflekta.”

these are my thoughts on what ive watched of the first season of miraculous ladybug (i have watched most of every episode except the last three).

i may be confused or misinformed on some points. some of this is not as serious as other parts, and the writing style is disjointed because i didnt write it all in one go. any links are formatted within brackets (as in [text]).

ordered by the order i initially watched (parts of) the episodes in and indicated by villain name somehow (english, korean, french, french translation, etc.).

stormy weather/climatika

why did alya just toss manon like that? she couldve hurt something just being thrown around with her tiny little bones and joints that lack any significant cushioning. not to mention that her neck is completely unsupported. safety, much?

the bubbler/le bulleur

so the record is fully functional but also survived getting smacked off a building on its edge? wow.

copycat/l’imposteur/the imposter

i get that alya is supposed to be that “go-getter” friend who pushes marinette to be brave, but honestly, if she had waited another minute for marinette to be more ready for making a phone call, this wouldve been less of a mess. yeah, i get the “pushing boundaries to build confidence,” but honestly we could have waited for marinette to stop stalking adrien, too.

i gotta say: marinette is truly fearless. my phone is so suspicious. i would not have the confidence to deliberately touch it with my face and risk contact with who knows what has been on it.

the “moral” or whatever of this episode is kind of unclear? steal someones phone and run into issues with security but then also somehow break into it and get what you want anyway? no, thats not okay. its not that funny that marinette legitimately stole someones phone, and she doesnt even get seriously reprimanded for this.

timebreaker/chronogirl

one of the most pressing questions i have for this episode is why no one thought of using pockets or a bag or something to hold this important watch. hand perspiration is pretty bad for a lot of older and newer mechanical objects alike. why is this clearly-important item treated any different? ive considered both the “tikki is in the bag” (doesnt mean it has to be marinettes bag) and the “girl pockets” (marinette designed her own clothes, though) possibilities, and im still stumped.

mister/monsieur/mr./m. pigeon

how did chloe know what the colors were or even what the embroidery pattern looked like from a pencil sketch? it looked like chicken scratch.

lady wifi

im not sure that “dont violate other peoples privacy” was very well stated, seeing as alya was landed with an unfairly harsh punishment due to corrupt politicians. and how did that get resolved, anyway? was she still suspended? was there even supposed to be a moral in this mess?

the pharaoh/le pharaon

the villain is a pharaoh, continuing the ages-long trend of pretending ancient egyptian culture is just ~so interesting~ and that its portrayal isnt exploitative at all. i cant really say much about this, but i dont like those special ancient egypt episodes of anything.

rogercop

a mess

im pretty sure that this was to save animation budget or something, but why was marinette picking up those croissants off the floor and arranging them so nicely as if it really mattered what she did with them besides cleaning up the spill? i guess ill let it slide if shes trained that way as an advertising thing (though advertising doesnt get a free pass by default just because its strange).

the evillustrator/evil artist/le dessinateur

off topic, but could that tablet also erase or create living beings?

dark cupid/le dislocoeur/heartbreaker

this was still technically a kiss without consent? doesnt really feel all that romantic and whatnot. i cant really get behind this as shipping material.

horrificator

side note: i really liked how chloes english voice actor delivered the lines mockingly announcing mylenes “award” in the beginning.

im not a fan of the “you must kiss as part of acting” plot point. it always gives off those peer pressure vibes from other people and opportunistic vibes from main characters who want to actually kiss the other person.

darkblade/le chevalier noir/the black knight

sabrina is honestly super lucky that marinette made her box have a hole big enough for super tiny animated character wrists or else she wouldve been in a world of more pain.

alya had a platform? im so confused about how this election worked. did they do ballots or some sort of “heads down” in-class vote thing?

the/le mime

seeing as people dont lose their memories of being attacked by the villains, i really dont see how tearing down the eiffel tower (even in an animated show where people are not in the structure at the time) is the best way to minimize traumatic experiences. i get that it was supposed to be a “wow” moment for the plot and just visual effects but not the appeal.

kung food

the second i ever laid my eyes on this name i knew it would be bad, i just didnt know how bad because there were just so many ways it couldve gone with that phrase and i didnt know what to expect until i actually watched the episode. more on this in a bit.

there was literally no point to having the famous chef be related to marinette other than contrived circumstances to get adrien into this episode. im using this as a launching off point for talk of other stuff.

why didnt marinettes parents do anything about a relative coming to their house? this really baffles me because they have their daughter meet an effective stranger with no help.

why didnt marinettes parents tell her what languages the relative spoke? honestly, it kind of seems like they just didnt even care if this would cause her extreme anxiety or anything. you would really think they would have at least discussed this as a family because it was made pretty clear that his visit was actually expected. i thought way higher of their characters until it seemed that they pulled this crap move.

i know it was supposed to be all cute and a bonding moment when adrien came over to translate, but it was even more of a disaster. why did they take a car literally around the corner to get to the hotel? why didnt the chef go directly to the hotel if it was so close? was that adriens car? who was in charge of organizing this event and making sure the contestants didnt end up in the wrong place? how in the world did the chef even get to the bakery? because of the close proximity of the hotel to the bakery, it doesnt make sense that he would go to the bakery instead from an airport or something? unless he was supposed to meet his relatives? which, in this case, was not facilitated at all? so many questions are raised.

i dont speak nor understand mandarin, but im pretty sure adriens wasnt good enough for him to actually be complimented for it. then again, its nothing new to see white people getting complimented for deigning to learn a ~foreign language~ while i get interrogated about my lack of “authenticity” for not speaking “my native tongue,” so i guess the writers were just being realistic.

he bowed...funny story, at least one time i went to a restaurant with other visibly asian people and the apparently-white waiter kept making this weird head bobbing motion every time they left the table and what im saying here is that i know adrien has presumably been learning about culture stuff, but i also know firsthand that creators really love to shove bowing into media whenever asian people show up. (that waiter did give us extra mints, so i guess that was nice.)

sarcasm alert: i love when ~asian~ people have ~asian~ accents. its not like this is a tired gimmick that i dont need to see literally everywhere i turn (oh, wait! according to the english version, it is! hooray for me! this is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me ever! im not being sarcastic at all! or overly sarcastic to the point where im sarcastically putting in that everything ive written in this paragraph is sarcastic because im just so mad! or maybe it definitely is! it probably is all sarcasm!) [bonus sarcasm here]

the chefs english/default dub language fluency was either inconsistent or this was just a straight-up rude portrayal of a nonnative speaker of a language, because adrien didnt seem to wait five seconds (for the chef to even consider the question about what he was cooking) before talking to the chef (and naturally, being a polite person, the chef listened to what adrien was saying), and i feel like it was only for the sake of adrien being ~useful~ because right after that, he talks to the chef in english/whatever language? dont think i didnt notice that his english speaking got “better” after becoming a villain. you know, if they hadnt faked the accent in the first place, they wouldnt have had to hastily cover for the fact that their voice actor couldnt even execute it well.

im sure adrien and marinette tag-teaming to argue with chloe and her racist comments was supposed to be this whole “wow look at that team” deal, but it felt like adrien was shoehorned into this mess sloppily. woohoo for the white boy defending marinette because she cant do it herself or something! i do appreciate when white people help stand up for me, but in this context, it feels off.

i have such a big problem with the “pep talk” adrien gives marinette when she thinks the chef doesnt like her. first thing, white boy explaining things about a person of color to a person of color, and the two people are actually literally related? i think the bouquet misunderstanding was really bizarre, and when did adrien have time to gain all this extensive exposition? the interview when they first arrived was short, and i dont think that both adrien and the chef would be so rude as to exclude marinette from their conversation in the car on the way over. this just comes off as a way to have adrien ~encouraging~ marinette, and its not a very good one.

this supposedly super prestigious competition literally has no security to make sure no one is mucking around behind the scenes, let alone ensure that the contestants arent up to any funny business. because why not. and no cameras around either, because cooking-based television programs never show any cooking, just the tasting and subsequent subjugation by a villain (this is a sarcastic sentence). even if this is supposed to be a featured dish and thus one they dont want to showcase the recipe behind, they could still have those little soundbites interspersed with candid panorama shots (can you tell i have no idea what any of these words mean?). im just going to have to chalk this one up to animation budget and move on.

i know this was just a sort of (intendedly funny) visual thing, but i highly doubt that the objects chloe put in the soup could just go unnoticed, especially since i presume a chef would thoroughly stir (and taste) their cooking, and the soup didnt appear to have properties of decomposing things touching it. otherwise that tasting session would probably have turned out a little messier (i am completely kidding here).

why is the chef being upset about being sabotaged made into a ~cultural~ thing? why is a white boy telling marinette about her ~own~ culture? sheesh, its like you cant just be upset because your shot at a world title was ruined on live television and you have confirmation that you were deliberately sabotaged. yes, chloe did it because shes petty and racist, but the results of her actions could upset anyone! its not just because the chef is chinese! what is the point of saying that? its a pointless throwaway comment! why dont you just find some other way to get the chef alone so he can be become a villain that isnt a) nonsensical and b) making sweeping generalizations about people? (granted, i cant speak to the validity of anything said about cultures, but i sure can comment on why saying such things about them isnt okay regardless).

“kung food” oh my god. this is such a piece of crap name. it is racist. you can literally try to argue against this until youve gone far beyond oxygen deprivation and in a grave but itll still be racist by the time youre done. aside from the pharaoh, there arent a bunch of ~ethnic~ names (not that it would be okay for that to be the case anyway) running around, and yet we get one with this specific villain whose ethnic and national origin is talked to death? okay.

and ive seen this pointed out, but the villain appearance seems to have a kind of anime-inspired design, which is honestly a good laugh because who was just talking about not conflating china and japan again? weeaboos and sinaboos are often in the same boat.

okay, not related, but adrien just had to taste a suspicious substance off the floor. why. there are so many ways to figure out what a substance is before putting it in your mouth. or you could just not do that at all. before this point, they did not appear to suspect a food-related villain, so this couldve ended badly.

another side note: i dont know how that receipt retained its integrity long enough for ladybug to wrap the villain up after dipping it in the soup. do the magical items just have super special properties like extra toughness that allows them to defy the reality of paper receipts? i wonder how many of the things ive talked about in this post have been me marveling at the sturdiness of lucky charm items.

of course this turns into an ~accountability~ lesson for marinette. and chloe doesnt get reprimanded? yeah, she got booted off a panel she didnt even want to be on and no one actually clearly articulated to her that the things she said were absolutely unacceptable? then again, this is a “diversity episode,” so i dont know why my standards are so high.

wow, marinette really needed to have adrien encourage her before going to take a picture with her great-uncle? im going to be generous and allow that she wanted to make sure he would be okay with her ditching him for her much cooler great-uncle because she didnt want him to feel bad about how not-cool he is in comparison. there, you see what i mean about making up story elements? (though im really not much of a writer, oops.)

im so over people making fun of how others dress as a joke. before i realized that i am autistic and reflected back on my life, i didnt realize that i gravitate toward clothing i find comfortable rather than fashionable, and ive always gotten negative comments, ill-intended or otherwise. so i really didnt appreciate marinettes jab at chloe, even if it was to defend herself. it was just unnecessary.

i want to talk about the whole ~chinese representation~ thing in this show. yeah, i know marinette is one of the very few chinese and mixed main characters out there (and there are barely any that are both), but im going to be super honest about this: i dont think shes all that great. i am a big fan of her and this show, but that doesnt make it infallible. the fact that adrien of all people is telling her about her own culture is a huge failing in itself. i dont know everything about my own cultures, but its not cool to have a literal outsider being shown to be the expert on someones culture and be the one to guide them through that. theres barely any portrayal of sino stuff in the show as is, and i hate the way this is only shown as a kind of special episode topic. i would be way more fine with this if this wasnt basically the sole instance of discussion of marinettes heritage. and no, the fact that her mother wears stereotypical clothing doesnt count. at all.

okay, this has been a huge issue for me before and after this point, but it was in this episode that it was made abundantly clear just what we are dealing with. i know that it is completely possible, genetically speaking, for a mixed chinese and white person to have blue eyes. its also completely possible for a chinese person to have gray eyes even without being mixed (i say this because i dont know if her mother is monoracial). however, if you only have two confirmed recurring characters of chinese descent, and their eye colors are ~special~ colors...well, thats kind of iffy there. why is it that the minor chinese character has stereotypical eyes? theyre basically just expanded pupils for all intents and purposes, which is not the problem, because its possible to have irises that are so dark as to make figuring out whether they have a distinguishable brown tint to them really hard. anyway, i suppose i dont want to talk about things ahead in the season, but why is it that the background asian characters get the stereotypical eyes but the main characters who are asian get the special eye colors? (that was a rhetorical question. i know exactly why.)

im pretty that at some point in the creation of this villain name, someone patted themself on the back for being so ~clever~ like “haha kung food geddit? its like kung fu but with food because im actually not that creative and more racist than i would like to openly admit.” okay, i know im being a bit harsh. but its really annoying when one of the few things people “know” about sino people is that kung fu exists. and honestly, i kind of suspected this, but ive seen other people say that the villain more resembles a villain from anime, so...thats kind of disrespectful there...

the/le gamer

i really disliked marinettes combo move names. they all had ~asian~ words like lotus, jade, oriental, etc.

animan

i find the sniffing scene to be kind of creepy. personal space much?

the city has really high quality buses. i cant believe the bus didnt end up backfiring on their plan because if i know anything about buses its that the ones ive seen are probably way older and more decrepit than me.

antibug

how do the earrings work in this setting? as far as i can tell, it would make sense for chloe to have pierced ears and a pair of ladybug imitation earrings that she could put it, but how is it possible that ladybug was able to just pull the earrings off? because that could be a really, really messy situation if they are actually piercings with backings and everything, but is there an explanation for this? magnets, clips, anything?

the puppeteer/le marionnettiste

can that glowing bright red effect that comes from her yo-yo and the power cord being swung around just for the viewers, or can it actually be seen in-universe? or is that a null point because both items are generated by ladybugs magic?

reflekta

this show really didnt need any “haha look a ~guy~ in a dress” jokes. and honestly, this was ill handled (though arguably, its very existence was ill handled). first of all, im not the best judge of this kind of thing, but to me, ladybug felt out of character while mocking chat noir? honestly, marinette doesnt strike me as the type of person to find that kind of situation funny in the first place, so the premise doesnt really hold up in my opinion. i know marinette can make mistakes, but youd really think she would be more open to not thinking this way because she knows what its like to be bullied for other things. moving on... [though, to reiterate]

the way this was not addressed? at all? yeah, ladybug apologized for that one comment at the beginning of their conversation, but then she continued to make jokes at chat noirs expense, and it just wasnt as funny as it was probably intended to be?

i know the whole thing about ambiguous chronology, but there is no reason ladybug wouldnt take chat noirs opinion into account when planning for things anyway. it felt like that part was written specifically so he could “prove” his worth to the rest of the episode and ensure that, yes, he is still allowed to be in it after being turned into a reflekta lookalike, and the whole thing smacks of trying to write out of a corner...that was written into in the first place. if it hadnt gone the route it did with the mocking of appearances, i dont think it would have had to be as convoluted as it ended up being.

i personally dont care for high heels, but i dont get the kind of “fashion cracks” that were being made about them. like yes, high heels can be hard to move in? yeah, it isnt fun being turned into the appearance of someone who isnt you against your will? i just dont understand this gag.

guitar villain

did ladybug really honestly just full-on spray someone in the face with the contents of an aerosol can? im aware that the point was that the hair was in front of his face, but what if some had gotten into guitar villains eyes? dang, what if someone tries to emulate this in real life? ouch.

digital/numeric

kind of done with the spotlight on stalking behavior this show has.

marinette still shows no fear of suspicious screens. she continues to use parts of her face to touch one multiple times, never mind that she literally flings her yoyo all over the place.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre i

did marinette have pierced ears in the first place? shes not shown taking any earrings out, and we dont get that clear a view of her earlobes anyway. that might be deliberate for modeling budget and all.

master fu has brown eyes. so thats like four ~chinese~ characters that are in this show, and the main character and her mother have the special eye colors, and the minor character who is somewhat important to the plotline has non-black eyes, and the minor one-episode character has the black eyes. what a shining example of diversity (no).

anyway this is a good point to say that some things are just not for you. there are things that you just cant be a part of no matter how much you want to be because it just doesnt work that way. and the mess that is the miraculous “mythology” is definitely an example of this. i myself have very little knowledge of anything sino, but i sure as heck can spot that this...”history” thing is so off.

at this point i should probably mention i really dislike master fu as a character in general. just as a single point, apparently hes based off the teacher character in karate kid? i saw somewhere that the creator said he basically made marinette mixed because he was dating an asian person when he was thinking about the show and that marinette is basically his idea of their mixed kid? and back to the eye color thing (again), ive even seen someone with green eyes and blue hair suggest to him that they could be the child of marinette and adrien, and he said theyre like his grandchild? (im not really inclined to try to dig up an iron-clad, indisputably genuine source for this right now, but if youre honestly searching for completely serious, well-researched information in a really good quality post, this is not the post you are looking for.) i have no idea where i was even going with this paragraph.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre ii

why is marinette so invested in her crush on adrien? this couldve been a sweet crush, but no, she has to make it so creepy? leading up to this episode, i really didnt know what to expect because i really thought there would be some sort of explanation for just how extreme the lengths marinette goes to are, but from what i can tell, shes just being super invasive? the ambiguous timeline doesnt really help with this, nor does the fact that the origins episodes were aired at the end of the season. whatever characterization was supposed to be inferred from this feels choppy and unnecessary.

simon says/jackady/jacques a dit

i dont really blame her, but ladybug totally could have reduced the level of adrien distractedness going on here. shes previously shown signs of compartmentalizing ladybug and even having to face the fact that it isnt worth using up her power over adrien, but gosh golly, what gives?

princess/princesse fragrance

ive seen criticisms of how ladybug was written to be overly competent in this episode, which i think is fair since it keeps happening, and its so late in the season by this point that its gotten tired.

volpina

i try not to be too judgmental, but frankly, adrien is not that great of a prize.

anyway, from what i can tell about this episode, i think that there was too much on marinettes flaws, which i really think is a bit much to have in the last chronological episode of a season. its already been established that she makes mistakes with her decisions, but i just thought her unequal prioritization of adrien was too much. it just seemed contrived to squeeze in scenes that the creators wanted to animate regardless of overall context in the show, which is really unfortunate because of how the show becomes a little less chronologically ambiguous at this point.